Books

13 Python Books to Learn Python Effectively

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Python is a beginner-friendly language that can also help propel your career. It is capable of doing a lot of things: Web Development, Data Analysis, Automation, build a Twitter Bot, etc. All this while being easy to understand. Coupling Python with SQL or JavaScript can open up other new avenues and learning Python can be really effective in helping you accelerate your career. Besides online courses and Bootcamps, learning Python through books can also be really insightful. Let’s look at Python books for beginners and intermediate coders that can help you teach yourself Python.

Python Books: Quick Look

Overall Best Python Book for Beginners: Automate the Boring Stuff With Python

Other Python Book Recommendations

Additional Book for beginners to learn better: Python Crash Course

Free Book to learn Python: A Byte of Python by Swaroop CH

To start learning Python for Data Science: Intro to Python for Computer Science and Data Science

To start learning Python for Web Development: Head First Python

For Intermediate Python programmers: Fluent Python

Let’s look at all the Python Books in detail.

1. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart

I started referring to this book as I was also learning through a Python Bootcamp. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is fascinating and one of those books that keep you hooked.

So what can you automate with Python?

• Folder organization on your computer by reducing or eliminating clutter in your folders
• Web Scraping to read and return data/text on a website
• Create, Edit, and Read Excel Spreadsheets and CSV files
• Create, Edit, and Read Word Documents and PDFs
• Sending Email and text messages
• Automating Keyboard and Mouse movements to automate monotonous tasks

The book starts with the basics of Python to help you get acquainted with the language. It later gets into having fun with automation. I used the ideas in this book to have a script automatically schedule gym days on my Google Calendar based on the weather. I also used it to automate a whole lot of repetitive mouse movements, and repetitive data entry tasks.

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2. Python Crash Course by Eric Matthes

If you want to get a general idea of the most popular things Python can be used for, this book would be a good fit. Python Crash Course is aimed at beginners and covers the following topics:

• Writing your own 2D video game
• Data Analysis and Data Visualization
• Web Development and deploying web apps

The book is well-structured and because of the breadth of topics it covers, it can give you a good idea of what you would want to pursue further. The book should help you get started and become confident with programming in Python if you follow all the exercises. Python is an extensive programming language and this book can help you wrap your head around a lot of what it has to offer.

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3. Head First Python by Paul Barry

Head First Python is beginner-friendly and can be a great starting point to learn Python. Besides being written in easy-to-understand language, the book also uses graphics to explain things better. It starts out with the basics of Python and then moves on to cover the following topics:

• Web App Development with Flask
• Working with SQL and Python
• Threading to do more than one thing at once
• Reading CSV files with Python
• Deploying Web Apps

If you want to just start out by exploring web development with Python, this book can be a good resource. You can also follow this up by learning JavaScript to become a better-equipped web developer. This book gets a lot more hands-on with web app development and reading/manipulating SQL data. Coding along with the book can help you go from a beginner to being confident in programming with Python.

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4. Learn Python 3 The Hard Way by Zed Shaw

Learn Python 3 The Hard Way takes a different approach to learning Python. It requires you to be a lot more hands-on by coding along with the code in the book to learn about the concepts. This is followed by exercises that are essential to get a better understanding of how to apply what you just learned. You also get access to companion videos to help you understand the concepts better. The book covers all the basics you need to know to become a Python programmer which is followed by the basics of creating a simple game and a website.

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5. Think Python by Allen Downey

This is another book aimed at complete beginners. It covers the basics of Python, followed by Object-Oriented Programming, and creating GUI programs with Tkinter. The book is well-structured with more complex topics like recursion and Object-Oriented Programming broken down into digestible chunks.

Think Python offers a really in-depth introduction to beginners who want to master Python.

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6. Python Programming by John Zelle

This is yet another book that covers all the basics of Python. It is aimed at complete beginners with case studies and exercises to help you apply what you have learned. The book is well-structured and the exercises can help you become more confident in programming with Python. The book also covers creating GUI programs with Python.

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7. Learning Python by Mark Lutz

Compared to all other books on this page, this is probably the thickest. This could be intimidating to someone just starting to learn Python. Needless to say, this book delves really deep into Python and covers the following topics:

• Basics of Python
• Object-Oriented Programming
• Decorators

Can you get the topics covered a lot more broadly in other books? Yes, definitely. The book, however, lacks the fun/interesting stuff that some other books have like automation or creating your own web app. This book is more suitable for people who want to start learning Python and explore each and every detail really minutely. That results in a book over 1000 pages.

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8. Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python by John V. Guttag

This is the accompanying textbook for MIT OCW’s Python course. The course is free and comes with all the assignments and video lectures. So buying this book can help you supplement what you learn in that class. The book is for beginners and covers all the basics of Python. Even though this book can give you all the basic knowledge you might need, it does lack the fun/interesting elements like automation, creating web apps, or writing your own 2D game.

But if you do plan on learning through a Python Bootcamp, combining this book with the MIT OCW Python course can be a great starting point.

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9. A Byte of Python by Swaroop CH (free)

This is a free book that covers the basics of Python which is also updated constantly. It is available in PDF and ePub versions. If you want to buy the book or even support the author, you can choose to buy the kindle book on Amazon or the hardcover book. The book covers all the basics you would need to know: Control flow, Functions, Modules, Data Structures, Object-Oriented Programming, etc. Even though the book does illustrate the topics with programs, it lacks practice exercises that can make you understand better and test yourself.

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10. Intro to Python for Computer Science and Data Science by Paul Deitel and Harvey Deitel

If you are interested in learning Python for Data Science, you should consider buying this book. It covers the following topics:

• Basics of Python
• Statistics
• NumPy, Pandas
• Data Wrangling with Python
• Recursion
• Natural Language Processing
• Web Scraping
• Sentiment Analysis
• Regression
• Classification
• Clustering
• Deep Learning
• Introduction to Big Data

Using this book to learn Python and following the exercises can position you to form a solid foundation of Data Science. The book is good for beginners which should set your mind at ease if the topics above sounded a little intimidating. Because this book deals with a fair bit of math, you might also want to look into having a basic knowledge of Statistics.

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11. Flask Web Development by Miguel Grinberg (Intermediate)

If you have some background in Python programming and you are interested in exploring Web Development, this book can be a good starting point. Learning another language like JavaScript can help you become better at creating modern, interactive websites. If you are a complete beginner it is better to consider one of the books mentioned above.

It is better to learn a micro web framework like Flask first instead of Django because you get a better idea of how things work in the background. Django does a lot of heavy lifting for you which is awesome but it doesn’t give a beginner the complete information. The book explains the Flask framework using a project-based approach by building a social blogging application. Finally, the book goes about the different ways you can deploy your web app.

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12. Django for Beginners by William S. Vincent (Intermediate)

This is another book that takes a project-based approach to learn Django. You build 5 different websites in the book and learn how to deploy your websites. The book assumes some background of Python programming, however, you can be a complete beginner when it comes to web development. This project-based approach to learning can help you understand the topics better.

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13. Fluent Python by Luciano Ramalho (Intermediate)

If you already have some background in Python, this book can help fine-tune your code to make it more efficient. The book shows you techniques of how to make your code shorter, faster, and more readable. The book is also suitable for people who are coming to Python from another programming language.

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There are many other resources to learn Python and they are only getting more extensive and easier to discover each day. If you are interested in Data Science, learning SQL online has also become easier. Python can be a great starting language that can be self-taught through books or online courses.

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